The Diving Bell and Before the Devil

Originally Posted 1/26/07:

Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
So, I miraculously found this tiny theatre in an art museum that charges $15 for a ticket and gives you little pink “Admit One” carnival style tickets that was playing Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead at one showing in its single theatre.* I won’t say too much about the plot except that it’s about two brothers who decide to rob their own parents’ jewelry store and, as you can imagine, things kind of go a teensy bit wrong.

*Santa Fe Sidenote: Not only was this practically in the middle of nowhere but normally-sized theatre nearly full at 2:00 for a movie that was playing at a nearby, much more consumer-friendly theatre for about two months, but the bigger theatre, where I saw the Diving Bell, a shall-we-say not enormously commercially successful film, sold out the 4:20 show, and, arriving 10 minutes before the 7:40 started, I was stuck with Bowfinger-esque seats that caused me to have significant neck pain. And then, after the movie was over, not a single person in the completely full theatre got up until the entire credits (in French I might add) were over. You’ve got to love Santa Fe.

Anyway, as I was saying, Before the Devil is really good, but I still liked Juno better. Like Chill, I didn’t enjoy the cutting from perspective to perspective, but that’s a very minor complaint. The acting is great, I’d say particularly by Philip Seymour Hoffman, and it’s a very well-told story. But seriously, what a fucked up movie. That’s not a criticism, but Jesus. Like There Will Be Blood though, its hopelessness really did keep me from truly loving it. It’s a little better than Oil!, I think, because you understand the characters on a deeper level, but I can’t say that I saw a huge gap between them in quality, and they’re very comparable movies.**

**Dan Sidebar: What about Before the Devil had you think it was on such another level from Oil!? I never really got a full explanation of why you loved the former, or what you didn’t like about the latter. I’m genuinely interested.

In the end, I guess the thing that drags Before the Devil Knows down for me most of all is its despair. In trying to grade these movies on “objective” quality, that’s probably not fair, but that’s not really the only thing I’m trying to do. My reviews always mix an opinion on “objective” quality combined with a simple opinion of how much I liked it, and while everything in Before the Devil was extremely well-done, I didn’t love it. And it’s not that I’m asking for the perfect storybook ending of a movie like Juno. I just want hope, growth, to be shown that life is worth living, not a series of upsets and tragedies that only build on themselves and can never be stopped. Is that so much to ask? A-

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Now there’s your best picture. I came into this movie not knowing anything about it at all, not even that it was in French. I would highly recommend entering it with the same state of knowledge if you can just trust me that it is really really great, and will definitely be worth it. If so, stop reading here and move onto the next bold heading.

Otherwise, I’ll get into a little more depth about it, if you’re into that kind of thing. The movie is the true story of a man, the former editor of Elle magazine, who has a massive stroke and becomes completely paralyzed except for his left eye. His mind still works perfectly, however, and he sustains his will to live through his imagination. As he gradually decides to stop pitying himself, he decides to write a book, being able to communicate only by blinking his eye.

To articulate and keep interesting a story in which very few events actually happen, Julian Schnabel has to get very creative with the directorial style, and it works brilliantly. It’s not really like Adaptation or Eternal Sunshine at all, but somehow it reminded me of that Charlie Kaufman/Michael Gondry*** way of working things, of adapting a style to fit your story. I’m conflicted now between Schnabel and the Cohens for Best Director. Schnabel is doing something much more original and creative, and not just for show either, but the Cohens perfectly executed their vision in a clear, understated way. I’m still leaning to the Cohens, but I couldn’t argue against either choice.

***Michael Gondry aside: Be Kind, Please Rewind with Mos Def and Jack Black looks superb. I cannot wait.

Also, The Diving Bell did a wonderful job of toeing that line between despair and hope, between success and failure that all great movies should do. Plus, as a major bonus to me, they played a perfect Joe Strummer song over the credits. Isn’t that such a wonderful feeling, when you love something a little bit obscure, and then someone who you would never expect to like it or even know of it, out of the blue shows you in such a great way? Anyway, the movie was fantastic. Go see it immediately. A+/A


Top Ten Movies of the Year^
1. The Lives of Others^^. A+/A
2. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. A+/A
3. Juno. A
4. Into the Wild. A/A-
5. Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead. A-
6. 3:10 to Yuma. A-/B+
7. No Country for Old Men. A-/B+
8. There Will Be Blood. A-/B+
9. Borat: Cultural Learnings for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. B+
10. Atonement. B
(11.) Michael Clayton. B
(12.) I Am Legend. B

^^Lives of Others Tangent: It probably shouldn’t be on the list because it was up for the Oscars last year, but the American release was 2007, and I seek any excuse to proclaim how great it is.

^^Lives of Others Tangent #2: To Sauce: Please kindly return my copy of this superb movie. My mailing address is on my profile page. (Did Julie give you Superbad?)

I imagine The Savages and I’m Not There will crack this list once I see them, but I think only Ratatouille, Eastern Promises and Darjeeling have a shot of the others I haven’t seen, so this is a pretty good list for now.

^Dan Sidebar #2: I saw you call this a relatively weak year. Did you mean a weak year for the nominees, or all together, including the films that were overlooked? Because when I look at this list, I see 2/3 great movies, 2/3 almost great movies, 4 very good movies, and then a few more well above average ones. That doesn’t look weak to me at all.